Minister of Music
Rip Jackson is the Minister of Music and Organist at First Parish in Lexington, Massachusetts. Rip is a conductor, singer, composer, and keyboardist (harpsichord, piano, and organ) who is passionate about many genres of music, including jazz, early music, classical, world, folk and musical theater. After attending a performing arts high school in Atlanta where he specialized in dance and choreography, he went on to study music history, piano, harpsichord and organ at Florida State University (Bachelors), Emory University (Masters) and Case Western Reserve University (doctoral work). From 2000-2015 he worked in Rutland, Vermont, as the full-time Minister of Music at Grace Congregational Church and Director of the Rutland Area Chorus and Orchestra. Mr. Jackson has conducted performances of many orchestral and choral masterpieces, including Beethoven’s Mass in C and “Pastoral” Symphony No. 6, Brahms’s German Requiem, Bach’s Cantata No. 97 and Brandenburg Concertos, Mozart’s Requiem and Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia. Rip has also musically and stage directed large productions of Broadway shows including Miss Saigon, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Les Misérables. In May 2010, his original composition, “The Beatitudes: A Journey of Compassion, Justice and Love Triumphant,” was premiered in Rutland, Vermont, in collaboration with Maris Wolff’s The Vermont Dance Collective.
Email Rip if you have questions about First Parish’s Music program.